Picture Sparks Treasured Memories for Billy Graham Library Visitors

Billy Graham's message of God's love was a turning point for Banks and Katy Williams as children. Before they ever met, both had accepted Christ after hearing Billy Graham preach. With their 58-year marriage built on a solid foundation of faith, he and Katy also taught their four children to love the Lord.

Strolling through the Billy Graham Library, Katy Williams stopped to stare at a large black and white picture.

Stepping closer, she and her husband, Banks, scoured the faces. He spotted his bride standing among dozens of others at a 1958 Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina.

At the time, Katy worked after school at a Charlotte grocery store. She and a co-worker made plans to go hear this popular young preacher.

She never forgot what came next.

“I just remember listening to Billy and how it moved my heart,” she recalled. At the end, he gave an invitation to receive Christ.

“I went down [front] when they played ‘Just As I Am’ and I was just shaking all inside. It was a big decision for me. … I was trembling.”

This picture shows the 1958 Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, N.C. Banks spotted his wife, Katy, standing on the upper right-hand side. Listening to Mr. Graham’s message moved her heart, she said. “I was trembling.”

Katy had been to church before with friends, but this night was different.

“I’ve thought about that a lot,” Katy said. “If I hadn’t of, things would maybe have been real different.”

She started attending church regularly, saying it made a “big difference” in her life.

God stirred Banks’ heart, too, through Billy Graham’s preaching.

They sat down on a bench just below the picture and he shared his Billy Graham story.

Banks was 9 years old in 1943 when his boys club went to Montreat, North Carolina, for a retreat. Their chaperones were students from Davidson College (in North Carolina) who were studying to be pastors.

“Billy had a service there at Montreat,” Banks recalled. “After the service, most of the guys in the club went down [front] and were all saved.”

Including him.

“I just remember his message, the same then as it is now,” he recalled. “It made me feel like I was saved and I felt the Spirit, and I’ve been that way ever since.”

“I got saved at Montreat by Billy Graham,” Banks said proudly. “I have a lot of good memories about that weekend that we went up there.”

A lot of the boys, including him, were baptized in the lake. Some, he said, turned out to be preachers.

After reminiscing for a while, reality set in and it was time to go. The couple had a doctor’s appointment at the VA Medical Center just around the corner.

Banks, who served in the Air Force and as a firefighter for 30 years, has been fighting esophageal cancer since September.

When he got the news he was sick, Banks told his doctors: “I’m not worried about it. I’m positive that I’ve got Somebody to take care of me,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation with me either way.”

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The Library is a living ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, that's free and open to the public. Lives are transformed daily as visitors encounter the love of Christ through the story of Billy Graham's life.